


Reluctant Devourer

by RedlaSunShowers029



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Multi, Other, Pred!Armin, Prey!Eren, Prey!Jean, Prey!Marco, Prey!Sasha, Titan Shifters, Titan instinct, Titan!Armin, Vore, nonfatal vore, struggle for control, there's a mild moment of Prey!Armin at the beginning, unwilling vore, what else to tag this...?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-05
Updated: 2014-09-05
Packaged: 2019-08-21 05:04:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16570187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedlaSunShowers029/pseuds/RedlaSunShowers029
Summary: A strange event leads to Armin's reformation as a Titan shifter - and as instinct takes over, he's forced to watch himself devour his friends. However, he's determined to find a way to get them back out.





	Reluctant Devourer

**Author's Note:**

> This is NOT related to cannon events, keep in mind. This was an old writing trade which preceded any spoilers relating to this by several years.

Reluctant Devourer

"Where's Armin?" The question rang out into the air, though judging by the expressions of his commerades, the answer wasn't one Eren wanted to hear. He had been seperated from his friend when they had been placed into different squads, and hadn't seen him since. Assuming well with most of them being placed together, he was completely crestfallen with what he could only make a guess was the worst as he landed on a roof next to them. "Eren..." He turned around to see Mikasa speaking, looking him in the eyes, her own midnight gray orbs creating tears in the corners, though keeping to her normal voice. "About half an hour into our mission, a seventeen meter class cut him off from the rest of us... He managed to cut off one of its limbs, but the other one grabbed him, and..." 

Heartbroken, he ran over to her, burying his face into her shoulder, numb with disbelief. His friend... The one he had stood up for and bonded with for so long... This couldn't have happened. He wondered if this is what it had felt to the blonde when he had gotten eaten before he learned he could shift. Still, it was horrible to imagine it had really happened; and he knew that Armin wouldn't have abilities like that to save him form eminent death. "No... No!" He couldn't get much out, all choked up without a single real word escaping his lips. "H-he couldn't have! How...?! I... Refuse... To believe... He died.... At the... Hands of a damned Titan! I'll... Find him! I know he's not dead! He can't be! He just can't be!" He continued on this tangent for quite a while afterward, an hour or so passing without him being able to move correctly. The rest of them had already left after several hours, his sister trying to comfort him without any success. Of course she, or all people, knew how hard it was to lose someone you loved so dearly, and understood that his spirit had been deeply crushed. "I'll... Kill... Them... For... Everything... They've... Done!" he finally managed to get out, wiping his tears away and the furious spark returning to his gray-green eyes. "I can't just stand here crying- I need to make sure his death isn't in vain! I'll kill... Every... Single... One... Starting with the original culprit!" he hissed, readying his blades. "Mikasa, which one was it?!" 

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The darkness within his surroundings was unbearable. Where....? All he knew is that it was dark, soft, and humid... Wait a second... According to Eren's description of a titan's "stomach"... Panic sunk in with the poor soldier, frantically looking about. All he could see is a reddish color with a few indents around it... The color of blood the beasts had spilled. And he had just fallen prisoner with a death sentence to one of them. He shouldn't even be alive at this point, the blood red liquid submerging him up to his shoulders, already beginning to feel like he was boiling. Yes, he would die here... There was no hope now. All he could wish is for it to be quick and as painless as possible... _Why... Couldn't I avoid this? If I had tried harder, certainly I would've managed to avoid this fate..._ Terrified and devastated, Armin settled down to lean against one of the thick walls, trying to keep the terrified tears from slipping down his cheeks. 

_This is how I'm going to die. There's no way that I'll make it. I've lost any hope of living through this, and it's all because of my foolishness..._ He took one of his steel blades out, ramming it into his hand. A sharp pang of complete pain came over him, feeling the crimson droplets drip out of the gash, and couldn't help but cry out in pain. _I've just gotten myself into this mess! And I've gotten everyone horribly upset on top of that! I'm such a fool, such a miserable IDIOT!_ After a moment, however, he felt an odd sensation... A dense blanket of flesh began to wrap around him, pinning his own body against a portion of it. He gradually began to understand what was happening, though painfully confused of why it was, until he remembered something about the injection- it alters memories...

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"There's another one!" he could hear behind him, as Armin slowly opened his eyes. Around him... Were his friends. At first, he was confused by why they were pointing their blades at him, then looked down... The streets were beneath his feet, looking down at his hands... An odd sensation of dread befell him. _I-I'm a shifter, too?! How did this happen?!_ He didn't have time to question it, either... For seconds after he had tried to wrap his head around it he felt a sharp pain in one hand... Only to look down a moment later, to see a freckled boy stab through his hand, seeming a bit panicked and disoriented... Marco. Worse still, he could feel a horrible sense that he couldn't move on his own accord... And ended up snatching up his comrade, who kicked and screamed in his grasp as his Titan self removed the human's gear and blades. His mind was fully alert and aware of what was going on, but his body... It was something else. It was like watching yourself murder someone before your eyes, as he helplessly watched his hand bring the paralyzed soldier closer to his... Open mouth?! _Stop! Let go of him! I'm not a monster like the rest of them...!_ He tilted his head back, feeling Marco slide down his throat, and continued to look around as he heard the  devastated shrieks of his other friends. 

_No... I couldn't have just... Why did this happen?!_ His friend had once lost control of his Titan form, so maybe that was why...? He had to warn the rest of them. "Stay away from me! I'm not safe to be around! Someone, please help! I don't want to end up killing anyone else!" But the panicked, frantic cry died in his mind, barely making it out of his mouth, and certainly unheard by anyone on the outside. "MARCO!" He turned to face his rather furious friend, and his stomach twisted up in guilt; Jean was coming up on one side of him. He knew how it felt to watch your friend get eaten, and Jean was no exception- scared as he was, he wasn't going to let Armin have him without trying to fight back. Though he, too, found himself caught in the titan's hand, grunting, trying to get ahold of his panic and aimed for the fingers holding him. Seconds before he could, though, Armin had knocked the blade out of his hand. He was starting to gain a little more control, but not enough. Jean's expression of angry fear turned to confusion looking back up at Armin- his expression was not malicious, but completely horrified. _Why is it staring at me like that?_ Hw couldn't wrap his head around why he was being looked upon in horror, not realizing that it had to do with the Titan's identity. He, neither, had time to question it, as his dented gear slid away from him, barely alerting them before finding himself getting raised to the maw. "It's an abnormal!" he shrieked, before being gulped down to meet his friend inside. 

By now, Armin was deeply panicked. He couldn't control this form, and what's worse, he could see it happening without a single way to stop it. He didn't even remember picking them up, but Bertholdt, Reiner, and Annie were all in his grasp at once, then Sasha and Connie in his other hand, struggling to fight against him, though soon found themselves squirming down his massive throat. There had to be a way to stop this... Right? The poor human, trapped between a a blanket of instinct, just hadn't found it yet. He would attempt to concentrate on controlling it instead of what poor friend was in his grasp. But he noticed something else as well: the number of companions he had swallowed were still alive inside his Titan stomach, panicking, pounding, yelling. It was horrible, but at least he hadn't killed them... Not yet. They still had a chance, if he could get back into control.

_Focus. Focus yourself, Armin.... The lives of your peers depend on it._

"There it is! Don't let it get away!" They was it- the last straw for the shifter. That voice, he could pick from a thousand. His best friend was right behind him, which would've been a good thing at a time like this... Surely this would be where he'd die, at the hand of someone he loved so dearly. Or not... That hand, that awful hand that had ensnared the rest of them, had found its target... He barely managed to focus enough on controlling it to open up his hand so he didn't crush his friend, concentrating enough control to simply hold him there, managing to get a rather detailed account of his friend's demeanor. He was angry, his normal attitude towards Titans. But underneath that, he could sense the pain and anguish he was feeling- he had just watched half his friends get devoured before his eyes. He was reaching for his hand... And found one finger pressing him down onto his palm, so that Eren couldn't move to try and shift. He was losing control again. Armin could feel the hand trying to bring him close enough to eat him... Panic sparked in his brain. That was it. He had to struggle to bring the beast encasing him to his control.   
He grasped the one arm with his other, gritting his teeth with the strain. No- he would not let anyone else be taken victim to the disobedient titan. No morals broken, no deaths caused, no blood spilled. That was the goal. Focus. 

From Eren's perspective, a terrified pair of crystal blue eyes glanced down at him,  and he was still trapped under one finger, though could still see this bit of resistance towards its actions. Why was it seeming to get so distressed by its actions? Anger turned to scared confusion as he tried to wrap his head around these seemingly unnatural reactions, as well that face, expression and all, seemed to be very familiar. He just couldn't figure out by what... Until he heard it start talking. "No no no no NO NO NO!" A knot twisted in his stomach, both by the seeming betrayal and the mourning he had experienced hours before. But now, relief and happiness weren't the things on his mind as he was met again by his friend, who was about to eat him... "Armin?!" The Titan's eyes, impossibly, widened even more, barely managing to nod before his other limb got the better of the one holding it down, forcing his poor friend up and into his mouth.

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He couldn't believe it- why on earth would his own friend attempt to make a meal out of him? He had managed to confirm her it had indeed been Armin, though he didn't have much time to think it over, feeling himself get coated in thick Titan saliva with the slimy tongue. He tried to think of such reasons for this as he checked his current surroundings. He was laying on his stomach on the massive muscle, which was rocking him back and fourth; not only sickening physically but mentally as well, with the dread of what this meant. A sharp cry was met when Titan Armin pushed him against the slick flesh of his cheek, a rather large-sounding gulp echoing behind him. The truth was a relief, though horrifying all the same- he had lost control, and was trying to rescue the only one he could. He hadn't meant to eat all or those people; it was like when he had lost control of his own Titan form at Trost. 

"A-Armin! Please spit me out!" he begged, trying to get a good enough grip on the light pink tongue, which was licking his face and all down his back. Though even with his desperate pleas the monster that had taken over didn't seem to be intent on letting him go, up until he froze. The tongue ceased to taste him, and he could barely hear the Titan heart beating somewhere further down. Eren settled down to press against the slick muscle beneath him, thinking about what could possibly be going on. _He's stopped moving completely... Maybe he's gotten more in control... I surely hope so... But did he really kill the others?! Or are they still alive, like how it was with me? I surely hope so..._

He turned to face the roof of his Titan maw, so he would be more audible. "A-Armin, I know you're not trying to do this... Just keep trying to control it. I-I know it's not always easy... There have been times that mine, too, has gotten to me, and taken away every muscle of my body. A-At least you've still got your consciousness intact... P-Please try to use that to your advantage."  By now Armin's eyes were swimming with tears, both his own and the titan's... Why couldn't he get control of it? Why was standing here doing nothing all he could do to stop Eren from getting swallowed? He really was stuck, and needed help- but who on earth would help a Titan, much less one who seemed malicious? As long as he kept control of this much, maybe Eren would get the message that it was safe to crawl out. _Eren, please try to get out of this. I can stop myself to this degree, but only this much... Pulling you out could only crush you, and I feel so numb..._ That was the moment that the Titan took full control again, gulping down the other shifter easily, while mentally he himself broke down sobbing.  

It happened all at once: first, an awful screaming filled his ears, one that he was sure could be his- then realization struck him as he slid backward into the massive throat, clawing at the slick muscles; it was a sound he had heard barely a year ago, after his presumed "death," a horrified and mentally agonized shriek his friend had let out the moment he had been devoured the first time. So this was how it ended for him, was it? To burn away in the stomach liquid of the form his physically hypnotized friend's Titan? He had no words for it, until he realized what Armin had unwittingly just done. "Armin, you just called titans on yourself on top of this!" he gasped out, which were his last words until he landed in a somewhat minimal puddle of stomach liquid, that was just enough to engulf him. Coughing and spluttering, he rose above it a bit as the awful truth began to intensify in his mind: Armin, his own friend... Had just eaten him. Though even knowing it wasn't intentional, it still was horrible for him to know that it had happened this way. 

A slick hand pulled him out of the "acids" and to his feet- he didn't have to look twice to know it was Jean. His shock was more than just average seeing him like this, without the slightest injury of any sort. "J-Jean, you're still alive...? H-How...?" "It seems this damned beast hasn't finished us off... Yet." Jean muttered. "Even took away our gear, if our luck wasn't bad enough. So far, no one's dead, but that won't be for much longer..." He turned away from Jean to look around him- yes, he was right. All of the soldiers that Armin had forcibly eaten were still alive, it seemed, pounding, thrashing, yowling in fear.  The aura surrounding the inside was just awful, dismal, and made him even less comfortable than he already was. He scoured his new "environment," eventually finding himself leaning against one of the deep red, slick walls. "A-Armin... Please... You can get back in control- I believe in you. Just please... Don't kill us..." 

The desperate upset rang out clearly in his voice, wanting only to be free of the titan's stomach. "Why did I decide to fight titans...?" He turned around to see Sasha pounding on the walls, her chocolate eyes brimming with panicked tears as Connie hopelessly tried to reassure her. Glancing around a final bit, he saw Jean doing the same with Marco, hugging him close in hopes of reassuring his friend, though neither of them seemed to be getting through to each other. Reiner, Bertholdt, and Annie each wore equally blank and bewildered expressions, unsure of how to react to the situation at hand. Though a thread of fear wove into his expression, he concealed this as well as he could. Apart from that, everyone was completely lost, trying to find out merely just how to survive in this state, with the fleshy walls and burning acid around them. 

At last, Jean walked up to Eren, his expression grave. "Eren... The only way that we're going to get out of here is to get someone to sever that damned titan's neck. Did it leave you with any weapons?" Eren's eyes widened- none of the others knew the titan's identity. "Jean... That's going to kill him... You see... This isn't just an abnormal that ate us... It's intelligent and concious..." Jean wasn't picking up on it quite yet, judging by his baffled expression. "D-Didn't it give you an odd look before eating you...? Did you notice any reluctance?" "Eren, I'm not quite sure how this has to do with anything of the sort." Reiner interrupted, leaning against the walls of the titan's belly opposite him. "G-Guys, what I'm saying is that... Is that... He didn't mean to do this! Somehow, Armin is a shifter, just like me, and... H-He lost control of his actions, but not his mind..." He began rubbing the sodden flesh in a sort of "hang in there" sort of manner. "All we can do is hope he gets concious again..." Eren murmured, continuing to rub the stomach wall in any sort of reassurrance he could give. 

Outside, the clink of metal blades could be heard as Mikasa began hacking through the titans that got close to the blonde's Titan. While she had no idea it was Armin, she had a feeling that something was up with this one's behavior. After she had cleared the other obstructious titans from the city, she then tried to further inspect the one that had devoured the rest of the 104th's top ten fighters, excluding Ymir and Krista. He reached out to grab her, succeeding in doing so, but something strange had come over him- he was able to keep fully in control past this, because for some reason the internal rubbing helped him concentrate more. He looked down at her in guilt and shame, beginning to talk again. His voice was slurred and quiet, but still his own as he choked out a few words: "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to... Didn't mean to... I coulemt control it..." he lowered his head to avoid her gaze further, while she lay in the palm of his hand, bewildered and shocked. "Armin...?!" He nodded weakly. "I don't know how it happened... I tried... To stop it... I need help... Can't figure out how to spit them out..." 

Meanwhile, Eren looked around at his commerades, a smirk of "I told you so" playing across his lips. "Really, all we need to do now is make sure that we have the rest of this under control. Try to help and get yourself out in any way you deem nessicary, as long as it doesn't severely damage him. Just try to keep as calm as you possibl-ow!" The liquid was starting to heat up more, scorching his legs even through his clothing. "A-Armin! I need you to get in control now! I don't think we'll last long like this...!!!" 

Then everything shifted as Armin began to hack his friends up, carefully setting each of them down before he broke free from the tendons that bound him to the Titan, as Eren rushed over to the collapsed form of his friend's fallen Titan. He gently freed him from the muscles, easing him gently back to his feet and allowing him a moment. "Armin, are you alright...?" Eren asked, squeezing him tightly to his chest. Armin nodded subtlety.

"A-Are you...?! I mean, I... I just..." Before he could utter another word, Eren clapped him on the shoulder gently, giving a nod of understanding. "It's alright... I know you didn't mean to... It takes a lot of practice and concentration to keep your Titan from going insane. Although, how did this happen in the first place? I wouldn't expect you to be a shifter..." "I honestly have no idea..." he replied, checking the rest of his friends for any signs of serious injuries, but none of them seemed to. "I-I'm really sorry about... All of this... I-I didn't want to... Didn't mean to..." His eyes filled with tears as he tried to choke out the final words that he couldn't form, a lump in his throat, feeling guilty as hell as the rest of his friends embraced him in a hug. "It's alright... No ones injured... Just try to control it next time, alright?"


End file.
